1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to tile setting apparatus, and more particularly, to cooperating box apparatus for holding a plurality of ceramic-type tiles in a particular orientation and tile setter apparatus which removes a plurality of such tile from the holder box for installing the tiles in the same orientation of the tiles as aligned and held in the box.
2. Background of the Invention
Ceramic tile is manufactured in a variety of shapes and sizes. For typical wall installation, such as in bathrooms and kitchens, tiles are normally about four and a quarter inches square and about one quarter to five-sixteenths inches thick. A tile setter prepares a wall for installation of tile by using some type of mastic on the wall to which the tiles adhere and to which the tiles are then grouted after initial installation. A sheet of material with an adhesive or mastic on both sides is typically used. A tile setter normally installs the tiles one square at a time by removing a single tile from a supply box and by installing the single tile. The tiles are then laid adjacent each other and are oriented with respect to each other from a base line, or a pair of base lines, usually a vertically extending line and a horizontally extending line which intersect at right angles.
Tiles are supplied in a box, usually in the box in which they are packed by the manufacturer and in which they are shipped. Since tiles are quite heavy, they are normally packed in relatively small boxes which are yet rather heavy. Typically boxes are marked, and the tiles are so packed, according to the square footage of surface area, usually about ten square feet, of the tiles in the box rather than the weight of the loaded box. In most situations, tiles are aligned parallel in boxes, disposed on an edge rather than flat.
Maximum efficiency of a worker is obtained by allowing him, the tile setter, to set a plurality of tiles in a single operation. This is difficult to accomplish because of the orientation of tiles in supply boxes and because of the inability of the tile setter to set more than one tile at a time and to orient each single tile in order to maintain the desired alignment of adjacent tiles in a pattern or, in the case of square or rectangular tiles, in an appropriate or desired square or rectangular arrangement and alignment. The efficiency of a tile setter is improved if tiles can be oriented properly for him and if he is able to pick up in a single operation a plurality of tiles appropriately oriented and if he can then maintain the appropriate orientation during simultaneous installation of the plurality of tiles.
Suction cups may be used to pick up a tile, or a plurality of tiles, providing the tiles are smooth enough to allow the suction cups to maintain the necessary vacuum attachment. However, for a textured tile, the maintaining of the desired suction or vacuum for attachment may not be of sufficient time to allow the setting of the tile. Accordingly, a vacuum attachment which is able to provide the necessary adherence to both smooth and textured tile is preferable in order to accomplish the tile setting of a plurality of tiles in a single operation. The apparatus described and claimed herein accomplishes the above described requirements for setting the plurality of tiles in a single operation.